Chapter IV: Section II (1)

_Of the Countries where the Plague is supposed to originate.--The
Influence of Climate in producing Diseases--And of the Moral Conduct
of the Human Race in producing and influencing the same._

In considering the origin of a calamity so dreadful and so universal, we might reasonably suppose that the fatal spots which gave rise to it would long ago have been marked out and abandoned by the human race altogether. But this is far from being the case. In the accounts already given of various plagues, they are always said to have been imported from country to country, but never to have originated in that of the person who wrote of them. If a plague arose in Greece, we are told it came from Egypt; if in Egypt, it came from Ethiopia; and had we any Ethiopic historians, they would no doubt have told us that it came from the land of the Hottentots, from Terra Australis Incognita, or some other country as far distant as possible from their own. In short, though it has been a most generally received opinion, that plagues are the immediate effects of the displeasure of the Deity on account of the sins of men; yet, except David and Homer (already quoted) we find not one who has had the candour to acknowledge that a plague originated among his countrymen on account of their sins in particular. In former times Egypt and Ethiopia were marked out as the two great sources of the plague; and even as late as the writings of Dr. Mead we find that the same opinion prevailed. The Doctor, who attempts to explain the causes of the plague, derives it entirely from the filth of the city of Cairo, particularly of the canal that runs through it. But later writers, who have visited and resided in Egypt, assure us that the country is extremely healthy, and that the plague is always brought there from Constantinople. It is true that Dr. Timone, in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 364, tells us, that it appears from daily observation, as well as from history, that the plague comes to Constantinople from Egypt; but the united testimonies of Savary, Volney, Mariti and Russel, who all agree that Egypt receives the infection from Constantinople, must undoubtedly preponderate.

“The pestilence (says M. Savary) is not a native of Egypt. I have collected information from the Egyptians, and foreign physicians who have lived there twenty or thirty years; which all tended to prove the contrary. They have assured me that this epidemic disease was brought thither by the Turks, though it has committed great ravages. I myself saw the caravelles of the Grand Signior, in 1778, unlade, according to custom, the silks of Syria at Damietta. The plague is almost always on board; and they landed, without opposition, their merchandise, and their people who had the plague. It was the month of August; and, as the disease was then over in Egypt, it did not communicate that season. The vessels set sail, and went to poison other places. The summer following, the ships of Constantinople, alike infected, came to the port of Alexandria, where they landed their diseased without injury to the inhabitants. It is an observation of ages, that if, during the months of June, July and August, infected merchandise be brought into Egypt, the plague expires of itself, and the people have no fears; and if brought at other seasons, and communicated, it then ceases. A proof that it is not a native of Egypt is, that, except in times of great famine, it never breaks out in Grand Cairo, nor the inland towns, but always begins at the seaports on the arrival of Turkish vessels, and travels to the capital; whence it proceeds as far as Syria. Having come to a period in Cairo, and being again introduced by the people of Upper Egypt, it renews with greater fury, and sometimes sweeps off two or three hundred thousand souls; but always stops in the month of June, or those who catch it then are easily cured. Smyrna and Constantinople are now the residence of this most dreadful affliction.”

M. Volney informs us, that the European merchants residing at Alexandria agree in declaring that the disease never proceeds from the internal parts of the country, but always makes its first appearance on the sea-coasts at Alexandria; from thence it passes to Rosetta, from Rosetta to Cairo, and from Cairo to Damietta, and through the rest of the Delta. It is invariably preceded by the arrival of some vessel from Smyrna or Constantinople; and it is observed, that if the plague has been violent during the summer, the danger is greater for the Alexandrians during the following winter.

To the same purpose, the Abbe Mariti says, “The plague does not usually reside in Syria, nor is this the place where it usually begins. It receives this fatal present from Egypt, where its usual seat is Alexandria, Cairo or Damietta. The plague of 1760 came at once from Cairo and Alexandria; to the latter of which it had been brought from Constantinople. When it comes from that capital, as well as from the cities of Smyrna and Salonica, it acquires a peculiar malignity; and its activity never expands itself with more fury than in the plains of Egypt, which it overspreads with incredible rapidity. It is observed, that this plague, so destructive to Egypt, seldom attacks Syria; but that the latter has every thing to dread from a plague hatched in the bosom of Egypt.”

The testimony of these three authors, who have all been lately on the spot, must certainly have very great weight, especially when corroborated by that of Dr. Russel; for which see Appendix, No. V. But still there is some difficulty. M. Savary informs us, that, _except in cases of great famine_, the disease never breaks out in Cairo; which certainly implies that in cases of famine it does originate in the city itself; and Mariti, by saying that the Syrians have much reason to dread a plague _hatched in the bosom_ of Egypt, undoubtedly intimates that plagues sometimes do originate in Egypt. Smyrna and Salonica likewise seem to come in for their share of the blame; and Dr. McBride, in his Practice of Physic, informs us, that some parts of Turky are visited by the plague once in six or seven years; and M. Savary says, that Egypt is visited with it once in four or five years; but if Egypt never receives it but from Turky, it would seem that the plague could at least be no more frequent than in that country; or, if the fact be otherwise, that the disease must either originate in Egypt itself, or be brought to it from some other country than Turky. Dr. Timone, in the paper already quoted,[26] tells us, that the plague has taken up its residence in Constantinople; but that, though the seeds of the old plague are scarce ever wanting, yet a new infection is likewise imported from time to time. Thus, in attempting to find out the countries where the plague originates, we are led in a circle. Constantinople accuses Egypt, and Egypt recriminates on Constantinople. Ethiopia, the most distant and least known of those countries which in former times had any connexion with the more civilized parts of the world, for a long time bore the blame of all; but the Jesuit missionaries who resided long in Abyssinia (the ancient Ethiopia) do not mention the plague as more common in that country than some others; neither does Mr. Bruce, in the accounts he has published, take notice of any such thing. Ethiopia could not speak for itself, by reason of the ignorance and barbarity of its inhabitants; and Constantinople is now very much in the same predicament. The investigation of this subject therefore would require an accurate account of the climates of those countries where the plague is found to commit the greatest ravages, and a comparison of them with those which are now accounted the most unhealthy in other respects, and likewise a comparison of the diseases produced in the latter, with the true plague.

[26] Philosoph. Transact. No. 364.

The most unhealthy climates now existing (those where the plague commonly rages excepted) are to be met with in the hottest parts of the world; the East and West Indies, the wastes of Africa, and some parts of America. In all these, Dr. Lind, who has written a treatise on the diseases incident to Europeans in hot climates, seems to lay the whole blame upon the heat and moisture accompanying it. In the East Indies Bencoolen, in the island of Sumatra, is the most unhealthy of all the English settlements; but he informs us, that by building their fort on a dry, elevated place, about three miles from the town, it became sufficiently healthy. Next to this, Bengal is most subject to sickness; for which he assigns the following reason: “The rainy season commences at Bengal in June, and continues till October; the remainder of the year is healthy and pleasant. During the rains, this rich and fertile country is covered by the Ganges, and converted as it were into a large pool of water. In the month of October, when the stagnated water begins to be exhaled by the heat of the sun, the air is then greatly polluted by the vapours from the slime and mud left by the Ganges, and by the corruption of dead fish and other animals. Diseases then rage, attacking chiefly such as are lately arrived. The distempers are fevers of the remitting or intermitting kind; for, though sometimes they may continue several days without sensible remission, yet they have in general a great tendency to it. If the season be very sickly, some are seized with a malignant fever, of which they soon die. The body is covered with blotches of a livid colour, and the corpse, in a few hours, turns quite livid and corrupted. At this time fluxes prevail, which may be called bilious or putrid, the better to distinguish them from others which are accompanied with inflammation of the bowels. The island of Bombay has of late been rendered much more healthy than it formerly was, by a wall built to prevent the encroachments of the sea, where it formed a salt marsh; and by an order that none of the natives should manure their cocoa-trees with putrid fish.

“Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East India dominions, is annually subject to a fatal and consuming sickness. Here the Dutch, in attempting to make this, their capital in India, resemble their cities in Europe, have adorned it with canals or ditches, intersecting each other, running through every part of it. Notwithstanding the utmost care to keep these clean, during the rainy season, and after it, they become extremely noxious to the inhabitants, but especially to strangers. It has been remarked, that the sickness rages with the greatest violence when the rains have abated, and the sun has evaporated the water in the ditches, so that the mud begins to appear. This happened in 1764, when some British ships of war had occasion to stay for a little time at Batavia. The stench from the mud was intolerable; the fever was of the remitting kind; some were suddenly seized with a delirium, and died in the first fit; but none survived the attack of a third. Nor was the sickness at that time confined to the ships; the whole city afforded a scene of disease and death; streets covered with funerals, bells tolling from morning to night, and horses jaded with dragging the dead in herses to their graves. At that time a slight cut of the skin, the least scratch of a nail, or the most inconsiderable wound, turned quickly into a putrid, spreading ulcer, which, in twenty-four hours, consumed the flesh, even to the bone. Besides these malignant and remitting fevers, which rage during the wet season in the unhealthy parts of the East Indies, Europeans, especially such as live intemperately, are also subject to fluxes, and to an inflammation, or disease of the liver; which last is almost peculiar to India, and particularly to the Coromandel coast.”

In the same work we have an extract from Mr. Ives’s journal of a journey from India to Europe by land. “Gambroon in Persia, says he, is very unhealthful. Few Europeans escape being seized with putrid intermitting fevers, which rage from May to September, and are often followed with obstructions of the liver. Various authors who have treated of Gambroon, do, as well as the present English factory, impute its unhealthfulness, during the summer months, to the noxious effluvia with which the air is contaminated, from the great quantities of blubber fish left by the sea upon the shore, and which very soon become highly offensive. In the rainy seasons, at the island of Karee, in the Persian Gulf, intermitting fevers and fluxes are the usual distempers. On our arrival at Bagdad (supposed to contain 500,000 souls) we found a purple fever raging in the city; but though it was computed that an eighth part of the inhabitants were ill, yet the distemper was far from being mortal. Here we were informed that the Arabs had broken down the banks of the river near Bassorah, with a design to cover with water the deserts in its neighbourhood. This, it seems, is the usual method of revenge taken by the Arabs for any injury done them by the Turks at Bassorah; and was represented to us as an act of the most shocking barbarity, since a general consuming sickness would undoubtedly be the consequence. This was the case fifteen years before, when the Arabs, by demolishing the banks of this river, laid the environs of Bassorah under water. The stagnating and putrefying water in the adjacent country, and the great quantity of dead and corrupted fish at that time lying upon the shore, polluted the whole atmosphere, and produced a putrid and most mortal fever, of which between twelve and fourteen thousand of the inhabitants perished; and, at the same time, not above two or three of the Europeans who were settled there escaped. The effects of the violent heats we endured were, an entire loss of appetite, a faintness and gripes, with frequent and bilious stools; which greatly exhausted our strength. My stomach was often so weak, that it could receive only a little milk. Several of us became feverish through the excessive heat, and were obliged to have recourse to gentle vomits, &c. Though we were furnished with the most ample conveniencies for travelling, which money, or the strongest recommendations to the principal christians, as well as mahometan chiefs, could procure, and had laid in a quantity of excellent madeira, claret, and other provisions, &c. yet most of us suffered in our constitutions by this long and fatiguing journey.”

On these climates in general Dr. Lind observes, that in well cultivated countries, such as China, the air is temperate and wholesome; while the woody and uncultivated parts prove fatal to multitudes accustomed to breathe a purer air. In all places also, near the muddy and impure banks of rivers, or the foul shores of the sea, mortal diseases are produced from the exhalations, especially during the rainy season. “There is a place near Indrapour, in Sumatra, where no European can venture to remain, or sleep one night on shore, during the rainy season, without running the hazard of his life, or at least of a dangerous fit of sickness; and at Podang, a Dutch settlement on Sumatra, the air has been found so bad, that it is commonly called the Plague-Coast. Here a thick, pestilential vapour or fog arises, after the rains, from the marshes, which destroys all the white inhabitants.”

In treating of the diseases of Africa, the same author takes notice of those of Egypt; which country, he says, is rendered unwholesome by the annual inundation of the Nile, and being surrounded on three sides by large and extensive deserts of sand, by which means it is exposed to the effects of that noisome vapour, which, during the summer months, arises from sultry, hot sand. He doth not, however, say, that the true plague originates in this country, either from the inundation of the Nile or any other cause. On the climate of Egypt I shall once more quote M. Savary, who is a strenuous advocate for its healthiness, and is at pains to confute the opinion of Mr. Pauw, and others, who assert the contrary. “Mr. Pauw (says he) pretends, that at present Egypt is become, by the negligence of the Turks and Arabs, the cradle of the pestilence; that another epidemical disease, equally dreadful, appears here, by the caravans of Nubia; that the culture of rice engenders numerous maladies; that the want of rain and thunder occasions the air of the Thebais to acquire a violence that ferments the humours of the human body, &c.” “These assertions (M. Savary observes) have an air of probability, which might impose on people who have not lived in Egypt; but Mr. Pauw has ventured opinions in his closet, without the guidance of experience. In vallies, indeed, enclosed by high mountains, where the atmosphere is not continually renewed by a current of air, the culture of rice is unwholesome, but not so, near Damietta and Rosetta. The plains are nearly on a level with the sea; neither hill nor height impedes the refreshing breath of the north, which drives the clouds and exhalations off the flooded fields southwards, continually purifies the atmosphere, and preserves the health of the people; so that the husbandmen who cultivate the rice are not more subject to diseases than those who do not. The heats of the Thebais certainly surpass those of many countries under the equator. Reaumer’s thermometer, when the burning breath of the south is felt, sometimes rises to thirty-eight degrees above the freezing point,[27] often to thirty-six. Were heat the principle of diseases, the _Said_ (Upper Egypt) would not be habitable; but it only seems to occasion a burning fever, to which the inhabitants are subject; and which they cure by regimen, drinking much water, and bathing in the river: in other respects they are strong and healthy. Old men are numerous, and many ride on horseback at eighty. The food they eat in the hot season contributes much to the preservation of their health; it is chiefly vegetables, pulse and milk. In Lower Egypt, the neighbourhood of the sea, the large lakes, and the abundance of the waters, moderate the sun’s heat, and preserve a delightful temperature. Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, who long lived here, did not think the country unhealthy. There is, indeed, an unwholesome season in Egypt. From February till the end of May, the south winds blow at intervals, and load the atmosphere with a subtile dust, which makes breathing difficult, and drive before them pernicious exhalations. Sometimes the heat becomes insupportable, and the thermometer suddenly rises twelve degrees. The inhabitants call this season _Khamsin, fifty_; because these winds are most felt between Easter and Whitsuntide; during which season they eat rice, vegetables, fresh fish and fruit; bathing frequently, and using plenty of perfumes and lemon juice; with which regimen they prevent the dangerous effects of the Khamsin. But it must not be supposed that this wind, which corrupts meat in a few hours, blows fifty days. Egypt would become a desert. It seldom blows three days together; and sometimes is only an impetuous whirlwind, which rapidly passes, and injures only the traveller overtaken in the deserts. When at Alexandria a tempest of this kind suddenly arose, driving before it torrents of burning sand, the serenity of the sky disappeared, a thick veil obscured the heavens, and the sun became blood-coloured. The dust penetrated even the chambers, and burnt the face and eyes. In four hours the tempest ceased, and the clearness of the day appeared. Some wretches in the deserts were suffocated, and several I saw brought to appearance dead; some of whom, by bathing in cold water, were restored to life.”

[27] Water boils at eighty degrees of this thermometer.

The internal parts of the continent of Africa are but little known. The northern parts, containing the States of Barbary, are sufficiently healthy; the middle parts of the western coast, known by the names of Negro-land, Guinea, &c. are extremely unhealthy and pernicious to strangers. Dr. Lind informs us, that, at a distance, this country appears in most places flat, covered with low, suspended clouds; and on a nearer approach heavy dews fall in the night time; the land being every morning and evening wrapped up in a fog. The ground is clothed with a pleasant and perpetual verdure, but altogether uncultivated, excepting a few spots, which are generally surrounded with forests or thickets of trees, impenetrable to refreshing breezes, and fit only for the resort of wild beasts. The banks of the rivers and rivulets are overgrown with bushes and weeds, continually covered with slime, which sends forth an intolerable stench. All places however are not equally unhealthy; nor is any place equally unwholesome at all times of the year. It is only with the rainy season that the sickness commences. But as it would be tedious, and not answer our present purpose, to enumerate those places which are healthy, and those which are not, I shall only extract from Dr. Lind’s work an account of one which seems to be as bad as can well be imagined. It is called _Catchou_, a town belonging to the Portuguese, and situated in 12 degrees N. lat. “I believe (says the author of this account) there is scarce to be found on the whole face of the earth a more unhealthy country than this during the rainy season. We were thirty miles distant from the sea, in a country altogether uncultivated, overflowed with water, surrounded with thick, impenetrable woods, and overrun with slime. The air was vitiated, noisome and thick, insomuch that the lighted torches or candles burnt dim, and seemed ready to be extinguished; even the human voice lost its natural tone. The smell of the ground, and of the houses, was raw and offensive; but the vapour arising from the putrid water in the ditches was much worse. All this, however, seemed tolerable, in respect of the infinite numbers of insects swarming every where, both on the ground and in the air; which, as they seemed to be produced and cherished by the putrefaction of the atmosphere, so they contributed greatly to increase its impurity. The wild bees from the woods, together with millions of ants, overran and destroyed the furniture; while swarms of cock-roaches often darkened the air, and extinguished even the candles in their flight; but the greatest plague was the musquetoes and sand-flies, whose incessant buzz and painful stings were more insupportable than any symptom of the fever. Besides all these, an incredible number of frogs, on the banks of the river, made such a constant and disagreeable croaking, that nothing but being accustomed to such an hideous noise, could permit the enjoyment of natural sleep. In the beginning of October, as the rains abated, the weather became very hot, the woods were covered with abundance of dead frogs, and other vermin, left by the recess of the river; all the mangroves and shrubs were likewise overspread with stinking slime.”

No doubt these accounts are calculated to inspire us with dreadful ideas of the countries mentioned in them. What could be done by the putrefaction of dead animals and vegetables, certainly would be done here; the produce, however, was not the true plague; not even in _Catchou_; but “a sickness which could not well be characterised by any denomination commonly applied to fevers; it however approached neared to what is called a nervous fever, as the pulse was always low, and the brain and nerves principally affected,” &c. Certainly if in any country heat, moisture and putrefaction could produce a plague, it would be in this. Yet, in all the places we have mentioned, whether India, Arabia, Egypt, or Guinea, (and we might go through the whole world in the same manner) we have not been able to find either moist heat or dry heat, even when aided by putrefaction, insects, and nastiness of all kinds (not justly chargeable upon any climate;) I say, we have not found the united powers of all these able to produce a plague. Nay, it is even doubtful whether climates can produce those inferior diseases above mentioned. Even Dr. Lind, who appears to be so willing to ascribe every thing to climate, seems embarrassed in this respect. “There are many difficulties (says he) which occur in assigning a satisfactory reason, why in some countries, as in those between the tropics, heavy and continual rains should produce sickness; while in other places, especially in the southern parts of Europe, a want of rain for two or three months in summer brings on diseases almost similar. Upon this occasion (adds the Doctor) I cannot help observing, that there is hardly a physical cause which can be assigned for the produce of any disease, that will not admit of some exceptions: thus, not only the woods and morasses in Guinea are tolerably healthy, with some exceptions, in the dry season; but a few instances might be produced of towns surrounded with marshes and a foggy air, where the inhabitants suffer no inconvenience from their situation, even during the rainy season. Do the impetuous torrents of water poured from the clouds during the rainy seasons, in tropical countries, contain what is unfriendly to health? Thus much is certain, that the natives of such countries, especially the mulattoes, avoid being exposed to these rains as much as possible, and when wet with them immediately plunge themselves into salt water, if near it. They generally bathe once a day, but never in the fresh water rivers, when overflown with rains, preferring at such times the water of springs. Is the sickness of these seasons to be ascribed to the intense heat of the then almost vertical sun; which frequently, for an hour or two at noon, dispels the clouds, and with its direct beams instantly changes the refreshing coolness of the air into a heat almost insupportable?

“Further: As the season of those sudden and terrible storms, called the hurricanes, in the East and West Indies, and tornadoes on the coast of Guinea, partly coincides with that of the rains, do these dreadful tempests in any measure contribute to produce the prevailing sickness at those times? It was remarkable one year at Senegal, that, in the beginning of the rainy season, in the night succeeding one of these tornadoes, a great number of the soldiers, and two thirds of the English women, were taken ill, this garrison before having been uncommonly healthy.

“Lastly: Is it not more probable, as in those countries the earth for six or eight months in the year receives no moisture from the heavens but what falls in dews, which every night renew the vegetation, and reinstate the delightful verdure of the grass, that the surface of the ground in many places becomes hard and incrustated with a dry scurf, which pens up the vapours below, until, by the continuance of the rains for some time, this crust is softened, and the vapours set free? That these dews do not penetrate deep into the surface of the earth, is evident from the constant dryness and hardness of such spots of ground, in those countries, as are not covered with grass and other vegetables. Thus the large rivers, in the dry season, being confined within narrow bounds, leave a great part of their channel uncovered, which, having its moisture totally exhaled, becomes a hard, dry crust; but, no sooner the rains fall, than, by degrees, this long parched up crust of earth and clay gradually softens, and the ground, which before had not the least smell, begins to emit a stench, which in four or five weeks becomes exceeding noisome; at which time the season of sickness commences.”

From these quotations it must certainly appear, that the author himself is dissatisfied with his theory; and that, though in the outset he thought heat and moisture, assisted by the exhalations from putrid animal and vegetable substances, sufficient to produce the disorders of which he treats, yet, on a more minute investigation, he is obliged to acknowledge, that something inexplicable still remains. This he now wishes to solve by unknown properties in the water, by confined exhalations, &c. But as the consideration of these things belongs properly to the next section, I shall here only remark, that there hath not yet been given any satisfactory account of the origin of epidemic diseases of what I call the _inferior_ kind, much less of the true plague, which stands above them all, as I have already said, like the serpent Python above other serpents.

To what has been quoted from Dr. Lind, I shall here subjoin the testimony of Dr. Clark, who had an opportunity of observing the epidemic diseases which raged at Bengal in 1768 and 1769. These were, “the remittent fever and dysentery, which begin in August, and continue till November. During the beginning of the epidemic, the fever is attended with extreme malignity and danger; frequently carrying off the patient in twelve hours; and, if not stopped, generally proves fatal on the third or fourth day. In August the remissions are very imperceptible; in October they become more distinct; and, as the cold weather comes on, the fever becomes a regular intermittent. At that time, too, the putrid dysentery begins to rage with the fever. These diseases were very fatal to many Europeans, particularly new comers, in 1768. But in the year 1770, when there was a scarcity of rice, it was computed, that about eighty thousand natives, and one thousand five hundred Europeans, died at Bengal. The streets were covered with funerals; the river floated with dead carcases; and every place exhibited the most melancholy scenes of disease and death. During the sickly seasons at Bengal, the uncertainty of life is so great, that it frequently happens that one may leave a friend at night in perfect health, who shall not survive next day. There have been several instances of persons who have returned home in a state of perfect health from performing the last duties to a deceased friend, and have next day been numbered with the dead. But the cool, agreeable season, from December to March, is productive of no prevailing diseases. The complaints to be met with are in general the consequences, or remains, of the diseases of the former period. The complaints which the Europeans are subject to in the dry months are, the cholera and diarrhœa. Fluxes and fevers are then seldom epidemic; and, when they do happen, are not attended with much danger.

“At Batavia the rainy season is from November to May, during which time malignant, remitting and continued fevers and the dysentery rage with great fatality. Captain Cook, in his first voyage, arrived here in October 1779; the whole crew, excepting Tupia, a native of Otaheite, being in the most perfect health. But, in the course of nine days, they experienced the fatal effects of the climate, and buried seven people at Batavia. On the 3d of December, the ship left the harbour. At that time the number of sick amounted to forty; and the rest of the ship’s company were in a very feeble condition. When the ship anchored at Prince’s Island, in the Straits of Sunda, the sickness increased, and they buried twenty-three persons more in the course of about six weeks. The Grenville Indiaman, which touched at this island in 1771, suffered equally from the malignity of the air. A few were taken on board, when the ship sailed from Batavia, ill of a malignant fever; which spread by contagion at sea, and carried off great numbers. I visited several in this ship, when she arrived at China, who were reduced to mere skeletons, by the duration of the fever and dysentery; both of which were most certainly propagated by contagion.

“Those parts of Sumatra lying immediately under the line are continually subject to rain, and the ground near the shore is low, and covered with thick trees and underwood. The heat being intense, noisome fogs arise, which corrupt the air, and render the country fatal to foreigners. The land of North Island, which lies on this coast, near the beginning of the Straits of Sunda, appears at a distance finely variegated; but at the place where the wood and water are to be got it is low, and covered with impenetrable mangroves, and infested with a variety of insects. It is here that most of the East India ships take in wood for their homeward voyage. A Danish ship, in 1768, anchored in this island, and sent twelve of her hands on shore to fill water; where they only remained two nights. Every one of them was seized with a fever, whereof none recovered: but although the ship went out to sea, none, except the twelve who went on shore, were attacked with the complaint.”

With regard to China, this author says, that the “port of Canton is by no means so healthy as is generally represented. The comparative degree of health which Europeans enjoy here has been ascertained from the instances of the supercargoes, which is, however, a very erroneous standard. The generous and regular way in which these gentlemen live, for the most part, exempts them from diseases; and, being but few in number, no great mortality can take place among them. But seamen, who never observe much regularity in their way of living, who work hard in the day time, are but badly clothed, and not provided against the damps and cold north-easterly winds at night, seldom fail to be afflicted with the diseases already mentioned (fevers and fluxes.) Even the factors of different nations, who reside here for any considerable time, experience all the inconveniences peculiar to any sultry climate: florid health is a stranger to their countenances; their constitutions are soon weakened and enfeebled; and they become subject to habitual fluxes and other complaints, the usual consequences of too great relaxation.”

The climate of the southern part of China, according to the same author, is excessively hot during the summer months. Even in September and October, when the nights are cold, the days continue to be sultry. The cold months are, December, January and February; “and during this time the vicissitudes of the weather are more quick than in any other part of the world. When the wind is northerly, and the thermometer at 46, upon a change of the wind to the south, it is next day up to 60 or 70. People who reside here are always at a loss with regard to their clothing; one day finding a silk coat sufficient; and the next, upon a sudden change of wind, finding it necessary to wear a flannel waistcoat.”

On the subject of climate, therefore, I must conclude with the following observations:--First: That, as the diseases above mentioned are produced both in moist and dry countries, in those in the torrid and those in the temperate zone, they can neither be the offspring of moisture or drought, of heat or cold, of septics or antiseptics, but of something not yet discovered. Second: That, upon fair investigation, it does not appear, that ancient historians have been able to ascertain the origin of any plague whatever: they have universally ascribed it to the anger of the Deity, while their own pride would never allow it to have originated in any country with which they were connected. Third: It doth not by any means appear, that the climates of those countries, where the plague is known to be most common, are at all inferior to those already described, excepting the very circumstance of having the plague frequently in them: nay, indeed, that they are equally bad. Nobody will pretend to argue, that the climate of Asia Minor, of Greece, of the Morea, or of any of the countries most infected with the plague, was, or is, worse than that of _Catchou_ in Africa, already described; yet it is certain, that we have a number of testimonies that the plague has ravaged Asia Minor, while we have not one of its visiting _Catchou_. Ancient Greece, the Peloponnesus (Morea) and Asia Minor, were accounted healthy and fine countries; and modern travellers assure us, that they have not degenerated in this respect; yet these countries are desolated by the plague, while the unwholesome regions above described are entirely free from it, unless imported from some other quarter. To give this matter, however, as fair a discussion as possible, I shall here consider the account we have of the climate of Bassorah, given by the gentleman residing there in 1780; whose case, in the remitting fever, is given, Appendix, No. VI. “The overflowing of the Euphrates, and its waters stagnating in the desert, have always been accounted primary causes of epidemical diseases at Bassorah. The great floods from the melting of the snow on the mountains of Diarbekir, the ancient Assyria, happened in the year 1780, early in the month of May, when the heats in Persia and Arabia begin to be excessive. The desert, which reaches to the gates of Bassorah, is, for many miles, incrusted with a surface of salt; which, when mixed with the stagnated waters, and exposed to the sun, produces the most noxious effluvia. As early as the 25th of May, the town was surrounded by a salt marsh, the heated steam arising from which was, at times, almost intolerable; but the canal that runs through a great part of the city being filled with the bodies of animals, and all kinds of putrid matter; and, at low tides, all these substances exposed to the sun, made the air in the town scarce supportable; and, being totally destitute of police, the streets were in many places covered with human ordure, the bodies of dead dogs and cats, &c. which emitted a stench more disagreeable and putrid than any thing I ever experienced in my life. As to the degree of solar heat, it far exceeded what I conceived the human frame to be capable of bearing. The sensation under this heat was totally different from what I had ever experienced; it resembled the approach of an heated substance to the body. The quicksilver, in Fahrenheit’s thermometer, rose to between 156 and 162 degrees.[28] From the 30th of May I never saw it so low as 156, but generally between 158 and 160. After I left Bassorah I was told that it rose still higher. In the coolest part of the house, with the aid of every invention to decrease the heat, the quicksilver rose to 115; but after I came away, I was informed that it rose still higher, even at seven in the morning, the hour which we accounted the coolest in the day. Once the heat was said to be so intolerable, that no one could expose himself to it long enough to observe the thermometer in the sun. Some of the oldest inhabitants of Bassorah said that they never remembered to have heard of such a heat in any part of Persia or Arabia. The natives of the country appeared more alarmed at the heat than the Europeans: nothing could induce them to expose themselves to the sun after ten o’clock. I left Bassorah for Aleppo on the 30th of May. On our arrival at Zabira, the heat was so intense, that even the Arabs sunk under it.”

[28] Spirit of wine boils at 175.

From this account it was natural to expect that violent sickness would ensue. This was the opinion of the inhabitants, and they were not deceived. The sickness, however, was not the true plague, but a violent remitting fever; and even this did not originate in the city itself, but was observed to approach from Asia Minor, ravaging Diarbekir, and keeping the course of the Tigris, to Bagdad, where many died. From thence it followed the course of the Euphrates to Bassorah, and for about twenty miles lower. The opposite, or Persian shore, though within a few miles, was exempted, and it did not spread more than twenty miles into the desert.[29]

[29] Transactions of Society for improving Medical Knowledge.

I might now proceed to give an abstract of what has been said of the power of climate in producing diseases on the Western Continent, and West India islands; but as this belongs more especially to the second part of this Treatise, I shall here pass it over, as well as what Dr. Smith has said of the climate of Greece, in the Medical Repository, and which he endeavours to prove to be similar to the climate of North America. But, before we proceed to consider what diseases may be produced by _climate_ alone, it is proper to discuss the question, how far man is naturally subject to diseases of any kind? Many, no doubt, will be apt to suppose this a very absurd question; for as man is now, by nature, subject to death, it seems to follow, that he is also naturally subject to disease, as the means of bringing on death. But, however plausible this may appear, experience shows, that disease and death are not always connected. Many people die of mere old age; the powers of life being exhausted, and the system so far decayed, that the various parts of it can no longer perform their offices. On the other hand, a disease destroys by attacking some particular organ, and either totally consuming or altering it in such a manner, that it disturbs the vital operations, while yet strong and vigorous. We may therefore compare the death of a person from mere old age to the natural extinction of a candle when the tallow is totally consumed; and death from disease, to the blowing out of a candle while a part of it remains, and might have burned for a considerably longer time. Thus I am inclined to consider all diseases as merely accidental; and this with the greater certainty, because, though, in common with other believers in revealed religion, I think that death is the consequence of Adam’s transgression, yet I do not find that disease of any kind was threatened except in cases of positive transgression, long after the days of Adam.

Every one allows, that, though some diseases are natural, some are likewise artificial; but nobody hath attempted to draw the line of demarcation between them. Every thing is charged upon climate, heat, moisture, drought, vapour, &c. and yet, upon examination, we shall find the utmost difficulty in deriving a single disease from the causes we assign. No person in his senses will say that Adam, in consequence of eating the forbidden fruit, became liable to the venereal disease. As little can we say for the gout, the stone, or the dropsy; and if we cannot particularize the diseases to which he became naturally liable, we have no right to say that any kind of disease became natural to him in consequence of his transgression. If, therefore, death itself, originally not natural to man, did yet take place in consequence of his moral conduct; and if diseases, without number, have arisen among his posterity, though not natural to him in consequence of his first transgression, we have equal reason to believe that these diseases have taken place among them in consequence of their moral or rather _immoral_ conduct, in totally deviating from the line prescribed them by their Maker, and following others of their own invention; and this will appear the more probable, when we consider, that, long after mankind became subject to death, we find diseases, particularly the pestilence, threatened as the consequence of subsequent transgressions.

If, without taking scripture into consideration, we attend only to what may be gathered from profane history, we find the testimony of all the ancients concurring in one general point, viz. that in times of great antiquity men were more healthy, and even stronger, than in the times when those authors lived. This is taken notice of by Homer, when comparing the strength of men in the time of the Trojan war with those in his days, about two centuries later.[30] Virgil, who lived in much more modern times than Homer, carries his ideas of the degeneracy of man much farther; and informs us, that Turnus, when fighting with Æneas, took up and threw a stone which twelve men of that time could not have lifted. Now, though we know that both these accounts are fabulous, yet they perfectly coincide with the voice of historians of all nations; for we are universally told, that the first inhabitants of countries were a brave, hardy people, living according to the simplicity of nature, free from diseases, and attaining to a good old age.

[30]

A pond’rous stone bold Hector heav’d to throw,
Pointed above, and rough and gross below;
Not _two_ strong men th’ enormous weight could raise,
Such men as live in these degenerate days.

Iliad, B. xii.

This is so conformable to what is generally said at present, probably very often by rote, without regard to rational evidence, that, were we so inclined, ample room might be found for declamation against modern luxuries, particularly the practice of drinking ardent spirits, as pernicious to health, and destructive to the human body. On this subject, however, we may once for all observe, that, although we find ample evidence of the baleful influence of these liquors in producing other diseases, yet we find none of their ever having had any share in the production of an epidemic or general disease among mankind. In ancient times the art of distillation seems to have been unknown; so that whatever mischief was done in those days must have been done by wine, or other fermented liquors. In modern times, though the use both of fermented liquors and ardent spirits is undoubtedly carried to excess, yet there is no evidence of their producing an epidemic, or even making it more violent or general than it would otherwise have been. Dr. Cleghorn, having spoken largely of the manner of living of the natives in Minorca, proceeds thus: “I should next give a circumstantial account of the diet and way of life of the British soldiers in this island; but as this would be a disagreeable task, I shall only observe, that the excess of drinking is among them an universal vice, confirmed into habit. But, however different the Spaniards be from the English, in their meat, drink, exercise, affections of the mind, and habit of body; yet the health of both nations is equally influenced by the seasons. An epidemical distemper seldom or never attacks the one class of inhabitants without attacking the other also; and, surprising as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that the peasants, remarkable for temperance and regularity, and the soldiers, who, without meat and clothes, frequently lie abroad drunk, exposed to all weathers, have diseases almost similar, both as to their violence and duration.”

There can be no doubt that excess in drinking hath put an end to the lives of many individuals; and it hath been observed, that such as attempt to preserve themselves from the plague by the use of strong liquors, have generally fallen sacrifices to it;[31] but this cannot prove that such excess would have brought on the distemper without some other cause. It hath been certainly found, that excess in drinking or eating, excess in venery, excessive fatigue by labour, watching, study, &c. will all make an epidemic disease more violent when it attacks a particular person; but no experience hath yet shown that the _first_ person seized with an epidemic always fell under this description. All that can be said on the subject is, that, by such excesses as have already been described, the body is prepared for receiving the disease, by an exhaustion, or evaporation (if we please to call it so) of the vital principle; as wood is prepared for burning by the evaporation of its moisture; but as wood, however dry, will not burn without the contact or application of fire, so neither will the body, though ever so well prepared, be attacked by any epidemic, unless the true cause of that epidemic be also applied.

[31] See Sec. IV. Preventives of the Plague.

Thus we are still disappointed in our attempts to discover the origin of the plague. We have seen that the most unhealthy climates in the world do not produce it of themselves; neither can the conduct of any individual bring it upon himself, without an unknown _something_, which nobody has yet found out. It was this difficulty of finding out the natural cause, which certainly induced by far the greatest number of writers on the subject to ascribe it to Divine Power; and even as late a writer as Dr. Hodges tells us, that he believes in the _to Theion_, the “finger of God,” in the plague, as much as any body. As for those who have endeavoured to account for the origin of this distemper from an inquiry into natural causes, and conclusions drawn from the late experiments on air, they have totally failed; as will be fully elucidated in the following section.

If then we are to believe that diseases, especially those called epidemics, among which the plague holds the first place, have arisen in consequence of a certain line of conduct adopted by the human race, or have been inflicted by the Deity as punishments on that account, we are to look for their origin among those to whom the Deity principally manifested himself; that is, the Jews, and nations who interfered with them. Among the Jews we hear of the first general plague distinctly mentioned; viz. the three days pestilence of David, and to which it is possible that Homer alludes in his Iliad. Next to this is the great plague of 767 B. C. said to have spread all over the world. This coincides with the time of Pul, king of Assyria; who, having overthrown the ancient kingdom of Syria, turned his arms against that of Israel, and no doubt extended his conquests among the eastern nations, as we know very well the Assyrian monarchs did. As the ten tribes, ever after their separation from the house of David, had in a manner totally given themselves up to idolatry, we are not to wonder if the pestilence, so frequently threatened by Moses, was very common, or, as physicians term it, _endemic_, among them. Thus, whatever enemy invaded the country, would almost certainly carry the disease along with them, and spread it among the other nations with whom they afterwards had any connexion. At this time, or even before this, during the wars of Syria with Israel and Judah, this dreadful pestilence might begin; but, as to its being all over the world in any particular year, I do not see how it can be ascertained; because there are no general histories of the world in those early times. It appears more probable that this general pestilence took place at the time that Sennacherib’s army was destroyed. I have no doubt, indeed, for the reasons already given, that the plague had infected Sennacherib’s army before he went into Ethiopia. In that country, in all probability, he would leave it; and, after his return to Judea, when the dreadful catastrophe befel him of an hundred and eighty-five thousand of his men being destroyed in one night, there can be no doubt that the remains of his army would carry with them the seeds of a most malignant pestilence, capable of spreading destruction far and wide. It is true, we are not directly told, in Scripture, that the Assyrian army was destroyed by a plague, but that the angel of the Lord destroyed them; but, as this expression is quite similar to what we read of the pestilence in David’s time, there can be but little doubt that the means of destruction made use of in both cases were the same. Josephus expressly says, that Sennacherib’s army was destroyed by a pestilence. Neither are we to conclude, because this pestilence was miraculous, that it therefore certainly killed every one on whom it fell; or that it would not infect those who came near the sick, as any other disease of the kind would do.